Autoblog

It wasn't the number one pick of our readers (earning the silver medal in your voting), but Mazda managed to take the top honors at the LA Design Challenge with its KAAN concept. The design itself is a fanciful look into a future where all the roads in California are paved with... um, sub-level electro-conductive polymer (m'kay), which provides juice to the electronic tires that allow the KAAN to reach speeds of up to 250 mph. Up to 30 KAANs would travel together in formations that would cheat the wind, so MAZDA designed the vehicles so that they could fit tightly together in the peloton.

The theme of the competition was to depict what motorsports would be like in 2025. Chuck Pelly, director of Design Los Angeles, said that the choice was made because Mazda's entry was "the most innovative and artistic design," and that the KAAN "ultimately brought unique styling back to motorsports." Unique? That seems like a major understatement to us. See all of the contenders after the break


[Source: LA Auto Show]

We first saw Hyundai's rolling CUV shapeship, the HED-5 i-Mode, back in Geneva, but today at the LA Auto Show is the first time the Korean automaker has shown the car in the States. New to the crossover is a 2.0L gasoline direct injection (GDI) engine that Hyundai plans to roll out in production machines shortly. The new Theta Turbo GDI engine puts out 286 horsepower, which is very impressive for such a small powerplant. Hyundai puts its direct injection and turbo technology to good effect and combines these new features with its Continuously Variable Valve Timing (CVVT) to allow for a 15-20 percent fuel economy increase compared with a standard 2.0L four-banger. Expect to see this new engine make its way into a production car sometime in 2010.

According to Hyundai, the HED-5 has been approved for production and a new six-seat production CUV will hit the market in 2010 that's inspired by its design. Of course, don't expect to see its far-out future-spec interior make it to production, but the GDI engine and general look of the concept is a lock.

Gallery: Hyundai HED-5 i-Mode


Photos Copyright ©2008 Jeremy Korzeniewski and Sam Abuelsamid / Weblogs, Inc.

Toyota isn't holding a press conference at the LA Auto Show this year, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have anything to show. The Prius purveyors have built a CNG-fueled Camry hybrid. According to Toyota spokesperson Jana Hartline, the purpose of the CNG hybrid is to demonstrate the versatility of Hybrid Synergy Drive. The car gets 50% better fuel efficiency than the last production CNG vehicle offered by Toyota, which was based on the 2000 Camry. Hartline explained Toyota has no immediate plans to produce either CNG or CNG hybrid vehicles, but the company is looking at all alternatives for the future.

Click above for hi-res gallery of the Dodge EV in the wild

While a lot of the legwork was done for them by Lotus, we still have to give Chrysler a little credit for getting an electric vehicle prototype on the road so quickly. When we first saw the Dodge EV a couple of months ago, it looked like it was ready to roll, with a Tesla-like blend of Lotus platform and electric powerpack. Soon after we heard that the car was likely to make it to production, with a delivery date that would challenge the Chevrolet Volt. While it had appeared that Chrysler was way behind its domestic rivals in developing an electric car, we know that through their GEM subsidiary, Chrysler has actually accumulated a lot of EV expertise and become the nation's leading electric car seller in the process.

The Dodge EV is essentially a Lotus Europa, but uses lithium batteries and a 268 hp electric motor in place of the standard 2.0L four cylinder engine and transmission. It promises a range of 150-200 miles and a 0-60 time of under 5 seconds. It's a full-blown, plug-in EV, just like the Tesla Roadster, and should require a 4-hour recharge from a 220V outlet or 8 hours on a 110. To help launch Chrysler's new ENVI electric car division, the Dodge EV has been traveling the show circuit, but today we spotted it at one of our favorite local cruise-ins.

It attracted quite a crowd. Not surprisingly, many folks at the show mistook it for a Lotus until they saw the Dodge badges. Even then a lot of people figured it was some type of joint venture between the two firms. Most were amazed to learn the car might be in Dodge showrooms by 2010. Try as we might we couldn't wrestle the keys from the Chrysler reps. Hopefully the car and the company make it through our current economic crisis so we can sample one when they hit the streets.


Photos copyright ©2008 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.

It appears that German tuner Mansory isn't content doing outrageous things to Ferraris, Rolls-Royces, Mercedes, Bentleys and Aston Martins. They apparently want to do similar things to Porsches as well. To make things easier on themselves, they have decided to just purchase a firm that already does wondrous things to Zuffenhausen's finest. Mansory has purchased the Porsche-tuning arm of Rinspeed and renamed it Mansory (Switzerland) AG. The deal is a bit complex, but Rinspeed Inc. will continue to operate as a separate entity, and will continue to do additional automotive work in the future, and the Porsche-specific side of the business now belongs to Mansory. So while Mansory will now be able to offer cars like the "Rinspeed" X-Treme Cayenne, Le Mans 600, Imola and Indy 4S, Rinspeed will continue to build its wild and wacky show cars, like the Splash, eXasis, and sQuba. Got it? Good.





[Source: 4WheelsNews]

The 2008 SEMA Show ended last week, but for some inexplicable reason, Toyota forget to mention this little diddy that was supposedly tucked away in a corner of the Las Vegas Convention Center. It is exactly what it's name implies: a Scion xB that's been transformed into a taco truck of all things. Normally SEMA project cars are tuned for superfluous high performance and look like rejects from the Paul Walker Sport Compact Hall of Fame, but the xB Taco Truck can at least do something, i.e. serve that staple of the Mexican diet to legions of hungry lunch goers. From what we can tell, the vehicle uses the xB's platform, keeps the front end and dash and ditches the rest to make room for a stainless steel mobile kitchen. The truck was reportedly built from scratch by Louie Contreras with hand-painted graphics applied by Kenton Parker. Good job guys, it's... um... interesting, and probably the most fuel-efficient taco truck ever made. While it may be good on fuel, the Scion xB Taco Truck will likely be responsible for an entirely different kind of gas if it ever gets pressed into service.


[Source: Toyota, Carscoop]

It can be argued that Ferrari is known for living out on the styling edge and for staying too true to its own designs. Witness the wild Enzo supercar and compare that to the new California. The former is an F1 car with an enclosed body and the latter has been called a sell-out Ferrari for the masses. As such, we're always interested in new takes on the Ferrari design ethos, and we particularly like this concept called the Zobin by Iranian engineer Siamak Ruhi Dehkordi. The rear end looks cribbed from the one-off P4/5 produced by Pininfarina, but the front end places the Enzo's F1-inspired nose amidst the contortions of a metal band that swoops around to create both the front spoiler and front fenders, while still maintaining an open-wheel F1 look. The headlights are suspended from the metal band and seem to float beside center fuselage. This is a single-seater concept that's powered by a fictional engine of unknown cylinder count and displacement located amidship, but we're more interested in the design itself that we think is both edgy and honors those Ferraris that have come before it.


[Source: CarBodyDesign via CarScoop]

We left last week's SEMA Show in Las Vegas with a much deeper respect for the Dodge Challenger. We're so used to seeing Mustangs dominate the automotive aftermarket trade show and expected the new Chevy Camaro, which was actually the Official Car of SEMA this year, to make a big splash. But it was the Challenger that was on hand in droves, be it from independent shops and tuners who got their hands on one to play with or Dodge itself, which showed up at SEMA with three Challenger concepts, the most impressive of which was arguably the Challenger SRT10 Concept (the other two were the Challenger Targa and Blacktop). Imbued with the Viper's 8.4L V10 producing 600 horsepower, as well as functional upgrades like a ram air scoop, carbon fiber front splitter, Bilstein shocks and bigger wheels and brakes, the Challenger SRT10 arrived in Vegas ready to do business. Unfortunately, the business at hand was looking pretty in Dodge's display. Thankfully we found this video online of the Challenger SRT10 doing what we want it to: convert solid rubber into a gaseous state. Follow the jump for a video of the Challenger SRT10 not only doing burnouts, but hustling around corners and blasting down straights like it was meant to do.



[Source: Road2Road.com]

Nissan unveiled the NV2500 Concept today, which will debut in the metal at this year's 2009 Detroit Auto Show in January. No, it's not a high-performance sports car, but rather a multipurpose utility vehicle, a.k.a. panel van, that' previews what the Japanese automaker will soon bring to the commercial vehicle market here in the U.S. You may recall Nissan announced back in April that it was developing three new commercial vehicles for U.S. customers, and the NV2500 hints at the first one. It looks like a bit bigger than a Ford Transit Connect and much smaller than a Dodge Sprinter, which may be "just right" for many companies shopping in the segment. Nissan has already told us this first commercial vehicle is a clean-sheet design developed just for the U.S., and that it will be built at its Canton, Mississippi facility.

[Source: Nissan]

Automotive News is reporting that Volkswagen has moved the debut of its mid-engine roadster from this month at the LA Auto Show to January at the 2008 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The only reason given for the move is that VW expects there to be more interest for the concept two-seater in Detroit than LA. We would hazard a guess that it's also got something to do with budgets being trimmed back, but what do we know.

There's still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the VW mid-engine roadster, like what size four-cylinder will be installed behind the seats and whether or not the platform will make extensive use of aluminum to keep weight down. Though the car debuting in Detroit will be a concept, a production version is expect in 2011 if things go according to plan. Because a two-seat, mid-engine roadster is anything but a volume seller, however, this new sportster from VW could be in danger of being cut due to the ailing auto market in the U.S.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]